Where playing with toy soldiers is the whole point - and sharing the joy of doing so. And keeping a record of what's been done and what is still awaiting completion. A note of caution for those unfamiliar: this activity can be remarkably addictive and take over your free time. Well, now wait a minute, it's so much fun that shouldn't be a problem. Oh, that's right. It's not!
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Sunday, January 26, 2014

New Banner

So, I'm trying a different photo in the header - still haven't figured out how to adjust the text (grrr!). This is from one of the two pirate games I ran last fall. Two games, that frankly, didn't go as well as hoped and that lies entirely in my lap - rules were just not where they needed to be. Though there was also the challenge of not enough players available for the number of games open to be played. That was disappointing in the first game, ship based - only had three players instead of the nine I'd hoped for. But it was good for the next day's game, all land based, because the one person who played worked with me on the rules side of things - and the rules, readied too fast, were clearly not ready for full light of day.

This problem may be solved going forward because I may have found the set of rules I've been trying to create - already published by someone else. Our local group is gravitating quickly towards a standard set of rules, at least for the Horse and Musket periods. The rules? Rank and File from Crusader Publishing. While they are meant to cover from 1740 to 1900, I see no difficulty pulling them back to 1640 or so to include Three Musketeer games - and piratical events, of course. Nor do I see any challenges in including German East Africa from World War I. Sure, a few minor tweaks will be needed but the rules lend themselves to minor adjustments without any risk of breaking them.

That does leave the challenge of which rules to use for the Viking era and the Robin Hood 'era'. Personally, I think I will just make some more significant adjustments to Rank and File and still use them for these periods. My goal is simple - one set of rules to play all periods, just flavor adjustments needed. This causes some to suffer apoplexy, I realize, but that is not my concern. Having more games with less confusion is of greater consequence to me. And already, at the club, these rules are generating more games. So, yeah, seems to be the right way to jump.